Junior Boys — Begone Dull Care

Begone Dull Care

Domino/Outside

Ian Gormely (CHARTattack)

03/30/2009 1:39pm

Indie-dance had critics running for the club floor back in 2006, the same year Toronto's Junior Boys dropped their much-lauded sophomore album, So This Is Goodbye.

But the indie-dance floor has gotten pretty crowded over the past two years, as a bevy of new bedroom knob-twiddlers flood the airwaves with would-be club-bangers for skinny, pale kids drinking Pabst Blue Ribbon. Not that you'd know about any of this from listening to Junior Boys' new record.

Its title suggests a euphoric shrugging off of worries much like Primal Scream's Screamadelica, or at least following in the footsteps of contemporaries like Hot Chip. But Begone Dull Care is far too cautious and self-aware to fill that role with every bleep and beat in its carefully considered place. It's a slow burner of a record that outlasts the weekend and demands repeat listens for thoughtful consideration.

But most importantly, it's a declaration from Jeremy Greenspan and Matt Didemus that So This is Goodbye's success came less from lucky timing and more from the fact that it was a good record. Junior Boys are in this for the long haul.